VA Loan Updates

67% of local households have problems, GAO’s report says

WASHINGTON — A report released Friday indicates that 67 percent of veterans’ households in the Greater Memphis region — that’s 6,030 families — have problems paying their rent.

The Memphis Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Crittenden and DeSoto counties, has the seventh-highest percentage of veterans’ households in the “problem” category, meaning they’re paying more than 30 percent of their income in rent. The General Accountability Office report looked at the 50 biggest metropolitan areas.

The 73-page report, mandated by a military appropriations bill last year, looked at data from 2005 but pointed out that, with veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, and 194,000 homeless veterans on the streets, the demand for affordable housing for veterans is likely to increase.

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So much for one weekend a month, two weeks a year. Since Sept. 11, nearly 425,000 National Guard and reserve troops have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Like temp workers with no benefits, however, these citizen-soldiers find that when they leave the reserve forces, they are not entitled to the same tuition assistance as regular Army veterans.

To some lawmakers like Virginia Senator Jim Webb, this double standard is unconscionable. The former Navy Secretary and highly decorated Vietnam vet is trying to goad Congress into updating the G.I. Bill, whose benefits have failed to keep pace with the rising cost of a college education, by providing full tuition to a state university plus a $1,000 monthly stipend to all veterans who have served a total of two years in Iraq or Afghanistan since 9/11–reserve forces included. His rationale for extending equal benefits to National Guard veterans: “Same battlefield, same soldier.”

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I would like to reinforce Graham Wightman’s point in his July 31 Guest View in which he suggested restarting the GI Bill for higher education. When my husband returned from service in World War II, he was able to finish college and graduate school with help from this bill. Many of my generation can attest to this same help.

It is important for the future of this country to have a well-educated and trained population to meet the needs of the more and more complicated and competitive world we live in. I would like to suggest that we get in touch with our elected officials in Washington to present this issue. It is the least we can do for our returning service people who have interrupted their lives to serve the country.

JEAN M. KNIGHT

Found here.

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Most veterans know they can use their GI Bill to pay for the costs of their college education.

“However, many veterans are not a ware that they can use their GI Bill benefits in on-the-job training and apprenticeship programs with most businesses,” points out Georgia Commissioner of Veterans Affairs Pete Wheeler. “These programs are excellent ways to enable a veteran to acquire a skill under the supervision of an experienced worker in a practical “hands-on” way.”

During job training, a newly hired veteran employee, if eligible, can receive up to $15,480 tax-free supplemental income from his GI Bill during a two-year, experienced-based training program. National Guardsmen and reservists may also be eligible if they are currently under a sixyear contract or have been called to active duty for at least 90 consecutive days since September 11, 2001.

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Military enlistment commitments are for eight years, usually with some portion on active duty and the remainder on active or inactive reserve duty.

Education benefits are essentially the same for each branch, but are reduced for the Reserves and National Guard.

The Montgomery GI Bill provides up to 36 academic months (eight semesters) of education and training benefits during and after service. The amount — which can be more than $39,000 total — is determined by the length of enlistment and job during service. Various jobs also can qualify for a GI Bill “kicker” program, which can add up to $12,600 to the regular benefits.

To qualify for the Montgomery GI Bill, military members reduce their pay by $100 a month during their first year of service.

The Montgomery GI Bill Selected Reserve Program also offers 36 academic months with a total benefit of more than $11,400 for Reserves or National Guard members.

Illinois residents also can qualify for an Illinois Veterans Grant, which pays tuition and fees at public Illinois colleges.

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The Bush administration opposes a Democratic effort to restore full educational benefits for returning veterans, according to an official’s comments last week.

Senate Democrats, led by Virginia’s Jim Webb, want the government to pay every penny of veterans’ educational costs, from tuition at a public university to books, housing and a monthly stipend.

Such a benefit was a major feature of the historic 1944 G.I. Bill, which put more than eight million U.S. soldiers through college and is now credited by historians as fueling the expansion of America’s middle class in the post-war era.

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The VA has hired about 3,000 mental health professionals during the past two years to meet the needs of veterans suffering post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and other psychological conditions.

The VA hopes to hire another 1,000 psychiatrists, psychologists, psychiatry nurses and social workers this year to staff hospitals, outpatient clinics and veterans centers.

VA officials say the hiring boom shows the agency is addressing the needs of veterans suffering from psychological trauma.

But, some veterans groups say the VA is still playing catch-up and will have to do more to handle the anticipated tidal wave of mental health problems and traumatic brain injuries from Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Veteran grateful for GI benefits but says college debts keep mounting   

After six years in the Army, including deployments to Colombia and Honduras, Joel Hunt thought his GI Bill would pay for college.

But it hasn’t quite worked out that way.

Hunt, 30, is married and had twins in April. As a full-time student in the University of Utah’s physician assistant program, he doesn’t work.

With three loans and mounting debt, Hunt is having a love-hate relationship with his GI benefits.

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Blackanthem Military News, CAMP VICTORY, IRAQ - It’s not often Soldiers get to hear about VA benefits before they leave a war zone, but on July 30, members of Task Force 3d MEDCOM learned about VA-Guaranteed home loans from Maj. John Heil, public affairs officer and assistant loan guaranty officer with the Roanoke VA Regional Office in Va.

“I worked with Herman Cohen, loan guaranty education and training coordinator, to have the mini-pamphlets shipped to our headquarters,” said Heil, “I feel that many veterans have misconceptions about the program and I wanted to show them how easy it was to obtain a VA loan.”

VA-Guaranteed home loans are made by private lenders, such as banks, savings and loans or mortgage companies.  These loans are made to eligible veterans for the purchase of a home for their own personal occupancy.  VA guarantees the loan to protect the lender against loss if the payments are not made.

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It still offers path to education, but critics say it’s inadequate

More than four years of war in Iraq and years of fighting in Afghanistan haven’t deterred people from hitching their college education to military service.

Despite some evidence to the contrary, the Web site www.military.com states that “money for college” is still the top reason Americans join the military.

But critics say today’s Montgomery GI Bill and related education benefits through the military aren’t like the GI benefits of the post World War II or Vietnam eras, when funding flowing to vets seemed to match their education costs.

A Utah recruiter, however, says it’s not impossible for today’s veterans or active-duty military members in Utah, who are applying for education benefits, to one day graduate from college with little or no associated debt.

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